The NRF Reveals a Mobile Future
It was Alvin Toffler, technological, digital, and corporate futurist, who said, "Change is the process by which the future invades our lives."
After visiting the National Retail Federation's Retail's Big Show on Monday in New York City, I believe that change may be invading our future sooner than we think.
I know we've been saying for years that retailers have been exploring new ways to increase loyalty and motivate consumers to purchase by providing shopping conveniences and pushing offers via mobile devices. But those predictions have come to fruition in only a sparce amount of stores. Reasons for delay typically include unwilling customer bases, difficulty in forming the partnerships between all the vendors involved, and the costly systems for the retailers.
But after strolling the NRF expo floor this week, mobile in retail may be closer at hand. In fact, most companies I spoke to were touting mobile solutions. And not just devices that push coupons to customers' mobile devices in stores (there were a lot of those), but complete integrated solutions connecting in-store kiosks to mobile devices, to store websites, and back to the retailer for tracking and metrics.
In the Customer Experience Concept Store, contactless payment solutions, digital jukeboxes, digital name tags, loyalty cards and programs, mobile marketing, interactive and virtual shopping guides, multiplatform interactive surfaces, and Web-based customer feedback applications were abundant.
Dominic Morea, senior vice president, mobile commerce solutions, at First Data, said customers will soon demand the speed and convenience of mobile transactions. "I believe customers are absolutely going to walk into retailers and expect to pay with their handset," Morea said.
He showed me how First Data's "Go Tag" will help to revolutionize contactless payment. By swiping the tag at a POS system or even participating vending machines, transactions happen in real time (no long lines), however, First Data also tracks loyal customers and sends reports to its clients.
At Cactus Commerce, Jean Yves Martineau, a program manager for Cactus Commerce and Microsoft Commerce Server, explained how Cactus offers an integrated cross-channel marketing strategy designed for the Web, mobile, kiosks, POS, digital signage, and interactive TV.
Its interactive cross-channel experience, Soundshift store, generates a code during its online checkout process. The user can swipe the code with his phone and the code is pushed to the device. The user can next take the phone into the store, swipe it, and pick up his merchandise.
And at eCast, Bob Cooney, vice president of business development, demonstrated his company's digital in-store touch-screen kiosk where a wine company, for example, uses the kiosk to offer customers wine choices and pairings. By scanning a mobile device over the kiosk, the customer receives in-store coupons for meat that pairs appropriately with the wine that she chooses. Later the store can text recipes, wine pairings, and store communications to the customer.
Hopefully, Toffler's words will be echoing in our ears sooner rather than later and that the concepts on the NRF floor will start becoming a reality.
These all sound like very interesting developments and, viewed in isolation, sound like they might be attractive to the consumer. I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but I can see that, for example, whilst I might like a wine offer/suggestion with my meat purchase I might find myself subject to a barrage of spam if too many coupons were pushed to my mobile.
I'd also be interested to know if any of the tech companies described pay any attention to the loss of the human connection their products might lead to. Since the introduction of Chip & PIN in the UK I have noticed payment transactions becoming less personal. Chip & PIN is a good thing but the opportunities for companies to create an emotional connection with their customers - the basis of a superior experience - are reduced.